"I'm Going To Saks" Fall 2010 campaign

For the Fall 2010 season, Saks Fifth Avenue unveiled its tongue-and-cheek "I'm Going To Saks" campaign. The concept is based around transportation imagery, a graphic arrow treatment and witty explanations for why someone would go to Saks. I was challenged to figure out the format and produce creative copy for all supporting advertising and marketing pieces. This included newspaper and magazine ads, catalogs, various direct mail pieces, in-store signage and even outdoor media (see the Sweet Truck that sat outside our flagship store during Fashion's Night Out 2010). Here are some examples of how I created a consistent voice across different platforms.

Saks Fifth Avenue February 2010 Contemporary catalog

For Spring 2010, Saks Fifth Avenue launched a copy-driven ad campaign called "Think About". Based on Diana Vreeland's witty Harper’s Bazaar column titled “Why Don’t You ... ”, our campaign focused on suggestions of whimsical yet actionable things that our customers can do. These lighthearted ideas encompass style, lifestyle and highlight what makes Saks such a unique place to shop.

One of the first books that implemented this new campaign was the February Contemporary catalog, which I wrote. Here are some clips from that catalog.

New York Times article: Saks Fifth Avenue's 'Think About...' campaign

For Spring 2010, Saks Fifth Avenue decided to create a whimsical copy-driven campaign based on Diana Vreeland's Depression-era column in Harper’s Bazaar magazine called “Why Don’t You ... ”.

The following link is a New York Times article describing this campaign. The catalog example shown is an except for the March 2010 Contemporary book which I wrote.

Click here to view the New York Times article

Saks Fifth Avenue Men's clips

Here is a sampling of some menswear writing I've done at Saks Fifth Avenue. The first is from the Father's Day 2008 catalog. The following pieces ran as local magazine ads.

Saks Fifth Avenue Fall 2009 Contemporary catalog

The Art Director whom I worked with on the Fall 2009 Contemporary catalog decided to break format by printing this book on oversized, newsprint. Given the new design, I decided to title the book "Breaking News" and carry the newspaper theme throughout the piece.

I wrote the opening spread to resemble the front page of a newspaper—complete with a tabloid-style article about a fictitious character named Sohpia Saks, a style horoscope and a table of contents. I gave each of the 4 trends featured in the book punchy, New York Post-style headlines and subheads.

Saks Fifth Avenue Fall 2009 Women's Want It! catalog

The current economic climate poses a particular strain on those of us in luxury retail. How do we convince customers that it's okay to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on things that are so clearly not essentials? That is precisely the challenge that the higher ups at Saks have asked our creative department to resolve, across all of our advertising and marketing.

My fellow writers and I have found a solution by spelling out what makes our merchandise so valuable. From hand-crafted workmanship to the origin from which designers drew inspiration; a one-of-a-kind item to pieces that are exclusively sold at Saks— it's become part of our jobs to uncover the worth of everything we write about.

I first implemented this new copy direction for the Fall 2009 Women's Want It! catalog. Each copy block begins with a value statement. Working closely with a Senior Art Director, I formulated novel and interesting ways of incorporating additional information throughout each section. Here are examples of three of those sections.

The first section, “Nine Modern Masterpieces” was shot using mannequins instead of models to cut costs. Realizing this approach could easily look down scale we came up with the concept of an auction house—even using a Christie's paddle for the opening spread. Although the looks featured are not one-of-a-kind, the copy I created adds to their perceived value.

I titled the next section “Power Tools” and it was shot in the same vain as the film “Attack of the 50 ft. Woman”. It was my idea to illustrate the strength of these looks by making the model’s wearing them look larger than life. To emphasize this, I wrote empowering statements that run throughout on background billboards.

The final section shown here is titled “Mood Enhancers”. What originated as a ‘get the look at any price’ story evolved into an upbeat, trend-focused section. Each trend is represented by a unique optimistic phrase I created—Bright Color is called “Look on the Bright Side”, New Designers is “Share the Good News”, Rock ‘n’ Roll is “Stay Upbeat” and New Classics is “Invest in Your Future”.

This book has been received numerous accolades from many of the Saks executives.

Saks Fifth Avenue Spring 2009 Contemporary catalog

The main theme of the Saks Fifth Avenue Spring 2009 Contemporary book was haute hippie style with a modern twist. The Senior Art Director shot it against white seamless and set each of the images against tie dye-inspired painted backgrounds.

My original handle for the catalog/in-store event was "Born to be Wild", but this had to change to "Worn to be Wild", since Steppenwolf has a copyright on the title. For the opening editorial spread I came up with the idea and re-wrote the first verse of the song "Age of Aquarius" from the musical Hair. This was a more creative approach than the standard headline and subhead format that generally appears in our catalogs.

Saks Fifth Avenue 10022-Shoe catalog

Since the Fall 2007 launch of 10022-SHOE, the creative direction had been very clear-cut from both the marketing and creative department higher ups. But for the Spring 2009 catalog I was challenged to come up with an innovative concept for the celebrated designer shoe floor.

To create a feeling of exclusivity I decided to begin the book with an editorial in the style of a confidential dossier file. I gathered examples online and worked with the designer to create the exact look and feel I had envisioned. And in keeping with our creative direction of value statements I gathered interesting facts about as many of the shoes as possible and added them throughout the book.